Thieves ransack Pacifica theater, fall asleep

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Suspected thieves broke into a Pacifica community theater and ransacked the building Wednesday night — then nodded off and were found snoozing the next morning when employees arrived for work, police said.

One went unnoticed for two hours, perched atop a high wardrobe, while theater employees started cleaning up around him, employees said.

Keira Robalino, the office manager for the children’s theater school at 1050 Crespi Road, arrived early Thursday at the theater to prep for a class that was planning to visit, she said.

Instead, she found the doors to the building damage and stepped inside to discover it had been ransacked.

“Every cabinet door was open, refrigerators were open, everything was on the floor,” Robalino said Friday. “They stole a bunch of props from our show, they stole a lot of sound equipment. They even stole a 10-year-old Mac computer. It looks like they had already made one trip and could have really cleaned us out but they got distracted.”

The thieves also took cash, a guitar, an electric piano, other instruments and electronic equipment, employees said. They even hit the closet where alcohol and candy, sold during the shows, was stored.

Police were called and officers checked out a car parked nearby. Inside, they found a sleeping woman and items taken from the theater. Police said they arrested Jasmine Vardigans, 20, of Pacifica on suspicion of burglary, possession of stolen property and conspiracy.

Police left, and later that morning employees discovered another suspected burglar sleeping in the loft.

The shocked employee ran down to alert colleagues, who began barricading the doors to keep the suspect inside, Robalino said.

They heard the man moving around inside, trying to get out, even asking them through the door to let him out and trying to break a window to escape. Police returned and arrested Joshua Shargel, 21, of Pacifica, on suspicion of burglary and conspiracy.

Later that day, police also arrested Sara Courtney, 19, and Russel Basques, 20, both of Pacifica, on suspicion of burglary and conspiracy in connection with the incident.